Principles
The rules we design by.
These shape every choice we make, from which board to buy to how a message gets stored.
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Local first
A node must be useful with zero outside connectivity. Links to other nodes, or to the internet, add to what it can do but are never required.
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Owned, not rented
No mandatory accounts, cloud services, or licenses that can be revoked. If you hold the hardware, you hold the system.
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Repairable by the people who use it
Common parts, standard tools, and plain-text configuration. If something breaks, the fix should be within reach of a motivated non-expert with the manual.
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Frugal with power
We design around solar panels, batteries, and long stretches without a recharge. Every watt has to justify itself.
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Private by default
Encrypt what should be private. Collect only what the job needs. Assume the network you're on is hostile, because sometimes it is.
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Fail soft
When a part fails, the rest of the system should keep going in a reduced mode rather than going dark. Losing one node should never take the network down with it.
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Written down
Documentation is part of the product. Knowledge that only lives in someone's head is a single point of failure.